Many iPhone calendar apps seem to be overdone. Agenda is a new calendar app for iPhone that has a beautiful, fast, and simplistic interface. It’s one of the first iPhone apps I’ve seen that uses horizontal swiping to change views. I like it.
Teenage Entrepreneurship
About a week ago, I received an @reply on Twitter that suggested I was too young to be an entrepreneur. I responded to the tweet, but I’d like to elaborate on the subject in more than 140 characters.
This is a subject I feel very strongly about. I believe anyone is capable, no matter their age, to do whatever they set their mind to. And there’s truth to that. Look at people like Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. Zuckerberg started Facebook before he was even out of college and now it’s the largest social network in the world. Gates started programming computers at age 13 and went on to create the world’s largest software company. Kids are no doubt capable of creating great things.
The worst thing I see is when parents try to discourage their kids from thinking creatively and having dreams. If Bill Gates had listened to his mom, he might’ve not ever created Microsoft.
The moral of this story is to go out and just do it. Make your dreams a reality. Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t. Don’t let anything or anybody discourage you.
If took that tweet I received personally, I probably would’ve quit any projects I was working on. But I didn’t. Because I know I’m capable of doing anything I set my mind to.
The Typical Day
Here is almost my exact schedule every day: I wake up around 8 am and for roughly the next half hour, I stay in bed and read the previous night’s Instapaper queue on my iPad to see if there’s anything worth posting about. I also check my email to make sure there’s no messages in need of an urgent reply. Then I enjoy some breakfast and a cup of coffee.
I tend to work best in the early morning and late at night. Immediately following breakfast, I typically publish one or two posts about something I’ve just read on Instapaper. Between posts, I get other work done like answering emails and checking on my other weblogs.
By this time, the day has turned to afternoon. Many times during the afternoon, I just relax or catch up on some podcasts. Occasionally, I may be excited about a new project and work right through the afternoon.
Throughout the day, though, I check Reeder to stay updated on the latest technology news and post about anything I think is interesting.
Once the evening arrives, I sit back down at my computer and write an extended post from my list of ideas. After, I’ll work on other projects for a few hours.
Then the day ends.
The First Fifteen Minutes
A great presentation by head designer at Milk Inc, Daniel Burka, on designing a great user experience and how to capture a user in the first fifteen minutes.
Thoughts on iOS 5
Just recently, I was able to download the developers preview of iOS 5, Apple’s newest operating system for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. And to sum it up in one sentence: iOS 5 has fixed all the annoyances and problems I had with iOS 4. Let’s get into the details.
Notifications
Notifications on the iPhone have looked the same since day one. They’ve also been rather clunky and annoying since day one as well. Those days are behind us now with the new Notification Center. While some may say the new notifications are a knockoff of Android’s, I beg to differ. I like to think of it as an upgrade from Android’s notifications.
Small perks like the Weather widget that uses your current location to show the weather and the ability to re-arrange the order in which you see notifications are appreciated.
iMessage
BBM killer for sure. Most of the people I talk to on a regular basis have an iPhone, which defeats the purpose of having an unlimited texting plan. I wasn’t expecting this one, either.
Newsstand
Since there is no dedicated store for digital magazines or newspapers yet, I can’t say much about this app. However, I am interested to see how this affects digital publishing.
Reminders
So far, I’m a fan. Originally, I was going to stick to using Things.app, but the second I opened reminders, I was wowed by the UI. OTA syncing with iCloud and location-aware reminders are huge pluses as well.
As expected. The system-wide Twitter integration feels very native, as if it was always there. The ability to tweet right from Safari, Camera, YouTube, Photos, or Maps is appreciated and makes sharing your content that much easier.
Camera
I will be officially switching away from Camera+ in favor of the default Camera app — for now. After 5 major OS releases, I finally have a hardware button I can push to snap a photo. The shutter opens noticeably quicker, too.
Photos
Quick editing tools like crop, red eye removal and enhancement are nice, however I think I’ll be sticking with Camera+ for editing photos on the go.
Safari
Tabbed browsing and a simplified reader are features that should’ve been integrated since day one. What I’m most excited about though is the new ‘Reading List’ feature. I’m a big fan of Instapaper, and Reading List offers similar functionality. I’m going to refrain from fully switching over until Lion is released and Reading List is implemented in Desktop Safari, though.
PC Free
This one’s a biggie. The biggest pain I’ve had with former versions of iOS is having to plug in every time I had a new software update or wanted to sync some type of media. Combined with iCloud and there won’t every be a need to use a PC again.
Mail and Calendar
Nice and needed improvements in the Mail and Calendar department.
Wi-Fi Sync
Tying in with Apple’s “PC Free” scheme, you no longer have to worry about backing up your iDevice, either. Apple does it for you when you’re sleeping — assuming you charge your iDevice overnight.
Game Center
I honestly don’t even understand Game Center, so I’m not going to waste valuable internet space trying to explain it.
Conclusions
This is the first major iOS update where I’ve been happy with every new feature released. I feel like Apple really listened to user feedback this time and didn’t leave much out. They nailed features, price and integration. Kudos to Apple.
The Hit List
I’ve always been a fan of Things. When I heard about Hit List, I was immediately interested for one reason: over-the-air syncing. This is a feature I’ve been patiently waiting for Things to integrate.
The better UI of Things is what’s keeping me from switching to The Hit List. At this point, I’m ready to create my own to-do application.
iA Writer for Mac
I’ve used the iPad version on multiple occasions and couldn’t ask for a simpler interface. Seems to be the case with the desktop version as well. I do wish they’d integrate the multi-touch trackpad into the desktop app, though.
Essential Applications
While the only pictures you tend to see of my desktop are like the one below, my desktop rarely, if ever, looks like that.
I typically use many select applications daily: Sparrow Mail, Google Chrome, MarsEdit, et al. Each applications serves its own purpose, all of which is explained below.
Chrome ∞
This is my primary web browser. Typically, I’ll have 10-20 tabs open at any given time. This is where I read any articles I have on Instapaper, and any other links I find on RSS or Twitter.
Instapaper ∞
I use Instapaper daily to save articles that I might want to read and post to the blog. I rarely use it for pure entertainment.
Sparrow Mail ∞
For the longest time, I used the standard Mail app that came free on every Mac. However, as my blog got more popular and I received more email, I longed for a better email experience. This is where Sparrow came in. Since switching, I’ve never looked back.
Evernote ∞
Having only discovered Evernote a few months ago, it has become my virtual notepad. I keep all my ideas and thoughts on Evernote. Occasionally, I’ll use Evernote for to-do lists as well, since other apps like Things don’t yet support over-the-air syncing. This app stays open 24/7.
MarsEdit ∞
I’m using MarsEdit to write this post right now. Despite the ugly icon, which I have since replaced myself, MarsEdit provides the best writing experience of any blogging / writing app. I’m able to customize every corner of the app and see a preview of my post.
iCal / Google Calendar ∞
Especially during the summer and after school, I usually have meetings or other events that I’ll forget about if they aren’t on my calendar. I also use my calendar to schedule when I’m going to write and publish certain posts. iCal is a great desktop application, and when synced with Google Calendar, I have access to my events anywhere and everywhere.
Reeder for Mac ∞
I’m subscribed to over 30 RSS feeds, and I’ve found that Reeder is the best app for reading all of them. I’ve tried other RSS readers before like NetNewsWire, but I’ve found the UI to be lackluster. And despite Reeder being in beta, I find it to have the best UI and feature set of all the reader apps. I appreciate the Instapaper integration as well (more about Instapaper above).
Twitter for Mac ∞
I’ve always been one to try and use the official clients from Twitter for two reasons: the feature sets (some features are exclusive to official clients) and the UI. Twitter for Mac is based off Tweetie, the client I used before the official one was released. Tweetie was known as one of the best-designed Twitter apps around, even earning an Apple Design Award for its mobile counterpart.
iPhone and iPad
More on the apps I use daily and how I integrate the iPhone and iPad into my workflow in a later post. For now, sit tight.
The Defective Bite
Imagine that restaurant you love. The service is consistently great every time you visit. The food tastes great, too. That is after you send it back once or twice. I seem to have the same problem with the products I buy from Apple.
Ever since I sold my soul to Apple back in 2007, every Apple product I’ve owned I have had to send back due to a defect or problem. Like the restaurant, after I send it back once or twice, the problem is usually fixed and I’m able to use what I bought (in the restaurants case, I’m able to eat the food I ordered).
It shouldn’t have to be that way, though. Originally, I was tempted to think this was a karma thing. But it wasn’t. I couldn’t think of anything I did that would’ve caused this.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I just have a “defective bite”. Bite referring to the bite taken out of the Apple logo. I’m inclined to think every Apple product I touch breaks. While I don’t actually believe that, it sounds plausible. Maybe it’s something I do to it?
I’m just unsure at this point.
Despite all of this, I continue to slave up to Apple and purchase every new shiny thing they make. I can’t help myself, I’ve sold my soul.
Zitat
Francis Crick
The dangerous man is the one who has only one idea, because then he’ll fight and die for it.
